At 9:56 a.m. ET (14:56 UTC)  today, the SpaceX Falcon9 rocket (Transporter-6 Mission) will take off with 114 small satellites on board, including "Gama Alpha", the one we have been working on for more than two years.

When I say "we", I mean Louis de Gouyon, Andrew Nutter, Jordan Culeux and our whole team of incredible engineers. The project started as an essay I wrote at school 20 years ago.

This essay was about the principle of photonic propulsion, the idea that it is possible to move space vehicles thanks to sunlight. When a photon reflects on a surface, it transfers a small momentum, exerting pressure on it. Deploying a huge mirror in space would would be all you need to use this photonic pressure to move a vehicle.

This is the principle of the solar sail and the subject of the Gama project which started in August 2020. A solar sail could theoretically accelerate to speeds never before achieved by objects created by humanity. This efficient and economical propulsion method could offer new opportunities in terms of space missions.

And today is an exceptional day for this project and for the whole team. Our satellite which is the size of 5 milk bottles (6U) and weighs 12kg is going to be put on a low earth orbit at 550km (LEO). It embeds both a "Bus" part containing all the system elements (energy, communication) developed by NanoAvionics and a "Sail" part on which we have concentrated our efforts. The sail is made of a reflective material (aluminized polyimide: CP1) extremely thin (2.5 microns). It is folded origami-style in a winder and is equipped with 4 Tungsten weights fixed at its ends.

When our satellite leaves the Falcon 9 rocket, a first test phase will begin, followed by a deployment phase. A slow rotation of several days will allow to unfold the 73.3m2 of the sail. It is the centrifugal force which will make it possible to unroll and to rigidify the sail.

This first mission will simply allow us to test the deployment of the sail. At this altitude, there is still too much air slowing down the sail and making impossible to navigate it. We will have to wait for our next mission "Gama Beta" in 2024 and the deployment of the sail in high orbit to be able to test the navigation to make our satellite move thanks to the photonic pressure.

From that moment, we will judge the technology mature for its commercialization for deep space exploration and exploitation missions.

I would like to thank all our investors, CMA-CGM and CNES for their support on this very ambitious project.

Our eyes in the stars and our feet on the ground, we will keep!